[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 5567]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1015
           IN SUPPORT OF AMENDMENT TO THE TRANSPORTATION BILL

  (Mr. FLAKE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. Speaker, I come to speak about a very disturbing trend 
that we have here in Congress that both parties are guilty of 
perpetuating.
  In 1982, in the Surface Transportation Assistance Act, when it was 
passed, there were just 10 earmarks with a total value of $385 million. 
In 1987, the bill contained 157 earmarks; and it grew to $1.4 billion. 
In 1991, there were 538 earmarks at a cost of $6 billion; in 1998, 
1,800 earmarks at a cost of $9 billion. This year, there are 2,300 
earmarks in the transportation bill that we will be discussing this 
week.
  When that happens, when there are earmarks, it takes away from the 
high-priority projects that the States have identified and instead puts 
money toward low-priority projects that are identified by a specific 
Member of Congress. That is simply wrong to take money from Arizona or 
California or Texas from that formula to fund an earmark in West 
Virginia or Alaska or Minnesota or elsewhere. We need to change this 
process now, and I urge adoption of an amendment which will do that.

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